We got a lot of basil in our farm box this week. Time for pesto! Ingredients 2 cups fresh basil leaves 1/3 cup shelled pistachios 1/3 cup grated Asiago 1/3 cup olive oil 2 cloves garlic, peeled 1/4 teaspoon salt Instructions Mix all ingredients in a blender or food processor until a thick paste. Refrigerate for up to a week. Great with pasta, … Read more
I love caramelized onions. Sweeter than sautéed onions, they make a great topping for pizza and a nice addition to soups and sauces. Caramelizing uses low, steady heat to break down the onions’ starches into sugars. Continue applying heat, and the sugars turn golden and more mellow in flavor—just as when caramelizing crystalized sugar. The challenge is that it’s easy to mess … Read more
This post is a continuation from Part 1, where I outlined the first few hours of the sauerkraut-making process. Here, I talk about the first week of fermentation. Within 24 hours of chopping and salting the cabbage, it had already expressed enough liquid to nearly cover itself: You can see in the photo above that some of the cabbage pieces … Read more
I am taking the online course Introduction to Nutrition – Food for Health from Wageningen University and lately we’ve been talking about the role of carbohydrates in health and ways to reduce sugar consumption. I shared some of my own sugar-reduction habits on the discussion boards there and decided to also share them here for readers who want to bake with less … Read more
I never ate cabbage growing up. Maybe it’s because cabbage in a consummate winter vegetable, and we lived in places where the growing seasons were long and winter was more of a blip than a season. My first real introduction to cabbage happened in my first few hours as an exchange student in Germany. I had barely slept in the … Read more
We had turkey for Christmas and of course there were leftovers, so it’s time for the post-celebration ritual of making turkey stock in the slow cooker. Stock is made by slow simmering of bones and a small amount of trimmings in water. It’s a great way to use parts that would otherwise go unused. Stock tends to have more body than broth, … Read more
I have nothing against canned beans in a pinch, but I prefer to cook my own because I can make them with less salt and more flavor. I make large batches, then freeze portions in 1- or 2-cup containers for use in recipes or to heat up as a side dish (or, better yet, as refried beans). If you don’t … Read more
People often seem impressed when they find out I make yogurt at home. But they shouldn’t be. Making yogurt is as easy as baking muffins from a box.
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